If you’ve ever stared at a Honkai: Star Rail gacha banner wishing you had enough pulls for that limited 5-star character you’ve been hyped for, you know how valuable in-game currency is. Figuring out how to get gems in Honkai Star Rail (officially called Stellar Jade) is the first step to building the team you want without blowing your entire monthly budget on microtransactions. I’ve been playing since launch, and I’ve tested every method of farming currency to figure out which ones are worth the time, and which you can skip entirely to save yourself hours of grind. This guide breaks down every legitimate way to earn gems, for both free-to-play players and anyone willing to spend a little extra for faster progression.
Daily and Weekly F2P Methods to Get Gems in Honkai Star Rail
Consistent, repeatable tasks are the backbone of any free-to-play gem farming routine, and you don’t have to sink hours into the game every day to hit all of them. Daily Training is the most reliable low-effort source of free gems, as it only takes 10 minutes to complete all 5 tasks each day for 60 Stellar Jade. If you log in every day for a week, that adds up to 420 gems from dailies alone. You can pair that with weekly Simulated Universe point rewards, which give 300 gems per week for clearing a few runs, plus extra from weekly assignment rewards. Forgotten Hall weekly resets also give 120 gems for clearing the first 6 stages, even if you don’t have a strong enough team to beat the higher difficulty floors. These tasks alone add up to almost 5 pulls per week for less than an hour of total playtime, which adds up fast over the course of a 6-week patch cycle.
One-Time Gems You Can Earn From Permanent and Limited Content
If you’re a newer player, you have a massive pool of one-time gem rewards waiting for you that can give you thousands of gems in just a few days of play. Every explorable map in Honkai: Star Rail has hidden chests, puzzles, and challenge nodes that reward up to 1000 gems per region, and most of them are easy to find if you follow the map’s exploration markers. You can also earn gems from quest completions, first clears of endgame content, and achievement unlocks, many of which you’ll hit naturally as you play through the game. The highest-yield one-time gem sources are:
- Main story and companion quest completions: 30 to 120 gems per quest, plus bonus rewards for full completion
- Hidden chests and world puzzle completions: 5 to 50 gems per chest, with bonus rewards for clearing all puzzles in a region
- Forgotten Hall, Pure Fiction, and Apocalyptic Shadow first clears: 60 to 100 gems per stage, plus star rewards for hitting score thresholds
- Achievement completions: 5 to 100 gems per achievement, with hidden achievements often offering higher payouts
Limited time events that run every patch also give out between 1200 and 1800 gems for full completion, plus extra rewards like light cones and upgrade materials. Don't sleep on hidden achievements, many of them trigger from silly actions like running into a wall 10 times or talking to a specific NPC 3 times, and they can add hundreds of extra gems to your stockpile without extra effort.
Low-Cost Paid Options for Extra Gems
If you don’t mind spending a small amount of money to speed up your gem earnings, there are a few options that offer far better value than random crystal purchases. The Express Supply Pass offers the highest gem value of any paid purchase in the game, costing around $5 and giving 900 gems upfront plus 90 gems per day for 30 days, for a total of 3600 gems over the month. That’s almost 23 pulls, which is more than 10 times the value of a standard $5 crystal pack. The paid Nameless Battle Pass is another solid option, giving 680 gems plus tons of upgrade materials and a 4-star light cone if you complete all 50 levels over the patch cycle. If you want to make a larger purchase, every crystal pack has a first-time double bonus, so you get twice the amount of crystals on your first buy of each tier. You don’t have to spend anything to enjoy the game, but these options are worth considering if you want to pull more often without grinding every single piece of content. Just skip the one-off crystal packs unless you’re just a few pulls short of a pity, as they offer very low value compared to the passes.
Common Mistakes That Waste Your Gems (And How to Avoid Them)
Earning lots of gems is only half the battle, you also need to avoid wasting them on things that don’t add to your progression. The biggest mistake new players make is pulling on every new banner that drops, even if they don’t want the featured 5-star character. Always wait for official banner reveals before spending saved gems, so you don’t waste pulls on a character you don’t actually plan to build. Another common mistake is buying items from the in-game shop with gems that you can get for free, like credit packs, adventure logs, or refinement materials. All of these items drop regularly from dailies, events, and chests, so there’s no reason to waste gems on them. You should also avoid pulling on the standard banner unless you have extra leftover pulls from events, as limited banner characters are only available on their own banners, and standard 5-stars can drop on limited banners anyway. I made this exact mistake when I first started playing, I wasted 40 pulls on the standard banner trying to get a specific 4-star character, and I ended up missing out on a limited 5-star I’d been waiting for months to drop. Don’t make that same mistake, save your gems for banners you’re actually excited for.
At the end of the day, figuring out how to get gems in Honkai Star Rail doesn't have to involve endless grind or expensive hacks. By sticking to consistent daily and weekly tasks, cleaning up one-time content as it releases, and avoiding unnecessary gem waste, even free-to-play players can earn enough to pull their favorite limited characters regularly. I've used these exact methods to get 3 limited 5-stars in the last 4 patches without spending a dime, so they're proven to work if you stay consistent. The best part? You don't have to do every single method listed here to see results, pick the ones that fit your play schedule and you'll be rolling in gems before you know it.
